Restored Statues Unveiled at Zoo

(l-to-r) Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) President Connie Morgan; Zoo board member Betty White; Amerman Family Foundation President John Amerman; Zoo Director John Lewis; Councilmember LaBonge and former Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo at the unveiling of the newly restored Selig Zoo statues.

After migrating around Southern California for almost a century, four lion statues were unveiled in their permanent home today at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Councilmember LaBonge, zoo and foundation officials told the story of the statues that had originally graced the Lincoln Heights entrance to the Selig Zoo in the early 20th century.
"I'm very grateful to John and Jerry Amerman and the Amerman Family Foundation for providing the funds to restore these historic Los Angeles statues," said Councilmember LaBonge. "My mother grew up in Lincoln Heights and she went to the Selig zoo as a girl. There are people all over Los Angeles who will remember and be touched by these statues in a similar way."
Lost in the 1950s, the statues were rediscovered in 2000 and donated to the Zoo by Larry Davis. The concrete sculptures were restored through a generous gift to the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) from John and Jeri Amerman through the Amerman Family Foundation. The remaining statues (2 lions and 7 elephants) will eventually be displayed at the Los Angeles Zoo upon completion of their restoration (one elephant statue is not in the Zoo's possession).
In 1915 Selig, a successful movie producer, opened a movie studio that relied so heavily on the use of live animals that he established a zoo as well. Located in Lincoln Park and complete with more than 700 animals, the Selig Zoo grew to become home to the largest animal collection in the United States at the time.
Selig commissioned Carlo Romanelli, a sixth-generation sculptor from Florence, Italy, to create the life-sized concrete statutes of lions and elephants that adorned the Mission Revival style entrance gates of the Selig Zoo. When financial difficulties caused Selig to liquidate the zoo, the site continued operation as a zoological garden until at least 1942.
(To see a photo of the statues in their original location, click here.)